Tuesday 3 April 2018

Wayzgoose

I wondered how everything would fit into The End, the small shop on Castle Street which was this year's venue for the Wayzgoose (a meeting of printers). Last year they had all of Baskerville Hall to spread out in!
The answer is - they used every available inch of space, and some of the members of the public going through had to get quite friendly in the passageways!
To the side of the stairs, Alan Cooper and Simon Newcombe were playing fiddle and guitar, and everywhere were examples of the printer's craft. They also had information about the project to build a printing press at Baskerville Hall. The Woodblock Letter Press man had come all the way from Stroud. A stall in the next room had a display of coasters, including one with a slogan about tea which I rather wanted to buy. Sadly it was for display purposes only, made during a course the printers had run. They were called Mostly Flat.
There was also hand made paper from Maureen Richardson, and a display of Braille books. I met one of the young women involved in that - and found I'd met her before. She, and another girl from the Hereford College for the Blind, got a guided tour round the Cinema with me as part of their work experience week, organised by Emma Balch, who was also organising the Wayzgoose. Now she's working at trying to persuade publishers to publish more books in Braille, especially books by new authors, so that blind people have better access to modern literature. Braille books are expensive to produce, so publishers tend not to want to take risks with the titles they produce. The other girl on the tour of the bookshop is now at University in Swansea.

1 comment:

Emma Balch said...

Thanks Lesley! Emma www.thestoryofbooks.com